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Microsoft May Become Major Opponent of Patents?

Posted by Zonk on from the birds-gotta-fly-fish-gotta-swim dept.

UltimaGuy wrote to mention a story positing that Microsoft may one day be a major opponent of over-reaching patents. From the article: "Speaking at the LinuxWorld conference in London on Wednesday, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, said that although Microsoft is seen as being very pro-patent at the moment, if every other software maker enforced its patents in the same way then Microsoft would find it very difficult and expensive to do business. 'I think in ten years you will see Microsoft become a major opponent of patents and we will see very large software vendors turn around their position on patents,' Shuttleworth said."

8 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. And to think.. by BishonenAngstMagnet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft was just about to submit a patent on hypocrisy...

  2. Legal precedent by Tepshen · · Score: 5, Funny

    IANAL but I belive that there is a more than substantial similarity to the Pot Vs. Kettle case of '72.

  3. In other news... by pmike_bauer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...one day, the RIAA may become a major opponent of frivolous law suits.

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    I read /. for the (Score:-1, Conservative) comments.
  4. Re:Wrongo... by nsayer · · Score: 2, Funny
    However patents are also good for Microsoft's twilight years, when the only thing they will have left of any real controlling influence will be their software patent portfolio. Then they'll be hell bent on collecting any and all royalties from said portfolio just to bolster their waning proprietary business.

    They'd better hire Daryl McBride now so they'll be prepared.

  5. Re:Microsoft is already anti-patent... sort of. by SeventyBang · · Score: 2, Funny



    "You can't outdevelop Microsoft, but you can outinvent them."

    Nathan Myrvold, (cover) "MIT's Technology Review", May 2004
    former Microsoft employee (#5?) Microsoft's original CTO
    founder of Microsoft Research
    Ph.D., and now|new, J.D., specializing in....patent law, working now...buying strategic IP patents. ;)


  6. Re:woops by clem · · Score: 1, Funny

    Fact checking? There's no fact checking on Slashdot! You're supposed to reiterate you old mistaken facts, dressing them up with ad hominem attacks directed at any naysayers.

    --
    Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
  7. Nice try by sleepingsquirrel · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's quite obvious that if software patents go on much further, you won't be able to do much else then printf("Hello world") without potentially infringing.
    Nice try, but I'm here to inform you that you happen to be infringing on my Patent #271828182 "Printf without the terminating semicolon". As anyone can see, this is a great productivity booster for programmers. For that statement alone, you saved 5% of the keystrokes normally required. That's 5% less code to debug and maintain. Not to mention the cost savings on disk storage, network bandwidth, keyboard replacement, medical bills related to carpel tunnel syndrome, etc. Being the saint that I am, I'm licensing the patent on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, see the rate chart below...

    • < 10 printf semicolons omitted: $0.01 per semicolon
    • 11-100 printf semicolons omitted: $0.005 per semicolon
    • 101-1k printf semicolons omitted: $0.001 per semicolon
    • 1k-10k printf semicolons omitted: $0.0005 per semicolon
    • 10k-100k printf semicolons omitted: $0.0001 per semicolon
    • >100k printf semicolons omitted: $0.00005 per semicolon
  8. You know you're tired when... by Jules+Mercuri · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...you read that as "Microsoft May Become Major Opponent of Pants". Finally, I can side with them on something.